Flooding rivers and long days paddling have meant the four young men kayaking from the branches of Skippers Canyon to Dunedin are running ahead of schedule.
Glenn Hardinge - father of two of the kayakers, Jethro (22) and Luke Hardinge (20) - said he had been contacted by the team when they came into cellphone reception yesterday afternoon in Clydevale, northwest of Balclutha.
The high waters of the region's rivers meant they had travelled very quickly and he estimated they would reach the ocean by this evening.
"Weather permitting, hopefully they can paddle around [to] St Kilda.
If not, they're going to abort the sea section and I'll go pick them up and drive back home to Dunedin," Mr Hardinge said.
Clydevale was a necessary stop to pick up fresh water, due to the the contamination of the Clutha River by floodwaters.
Because of a lack of cellphone coverage, yesterday was the first time they had been in touch since they left Clyde on Sunday morning.
Although the Nevis Bluff rapids were running extremely high, they still managed to run the bottom half of the rapid after porting the first two holes.
"They didn't want to risk everything in their boats.
"They had their food, their tents and sleeping bags in there, and it was up above 450cumecs, which nobody has run before, so it was too quick," Mr Hardinge said.
He had texted them to keep them up to date with the weather and other issues, but had full confidence in the group, which also includes Anthony Harris (18) and Harrison Greer (19).
